The 25rnd mag is a pain when shooting on a bench.

The first time the extractor blew right off within the first 50 rounds. The second time I had a few jams and a bunch of “no fires” due to a light hit on the rim of the shell.

I got it back and the first 100 rounds were fine. I’ll shoot more later. It may sound weird, but it feels, sounds, and shoots better. Can’t explain it. It now seems like you would expect from a $500 rifle. The trigger feels even, the shells extract nicely, etc.

I only wish that Smith left some type of note. I always like to know why rifles fail, and how they are fixed. I’m just left guessing?

Let me know how you make out with S & W. I sent them a detailed e-mail explaining how my extractor was blown to pieces before my first magazine was even 1/4 emptied.

The gun attempted to load a round with a casing still in the chamber. Very dangerous situation yet they never replied to me. Hmmm Great American Customer Service S & W. What a let down.

This will be my last S&W.

Let me know how you make out with S & W. I sent them a detailed e-mail explaining how my extractor was blown to pieces before my first magazine was even 1/4 emptied. The gun attempted to load a round with a casing still in the chamber. Very dangerous situation yet they never replied to me. Hmmm Great American Customer Service S & W. What a let down.

This will be my last S&W.

I also installed a MAGPUL Battery Assist Device to allow me to operate the bolt release with the trigger finger. Great device but I had to take my dremel to the upper front portion of the trigger well in order for the BAD lever to fit in the trigger well.

Another issue I have had is that I wanted to install a one point sling but the buffer tube keeps the same profile its full length.

If you can imagine what my ASCII crappy drawing is trying to show (The pic above doesn’t show it well).
Most AR tubes start with the shape on the left where the stock locks are then it tapers to a shorter underbelly for the last few inches at the receiver like the drawing on the right. The 15-22 holds the same profile as the one on the left all along its length.
_ _
( ) ( )
U ‘–’

There is also a difference in how the receiver protrudes out to meet the buffer tube. Since there is no Castle nut it can make finding a proper fitting sling point difficult. I first bought one from Daniel Defense which is really nice and high quality but it is made for the tapered tubes, it now rests on my Tippmann A5 stock until I get my real AR built. I ended up finding a good one at Bravo Company USA, it is made to fit with the castle nut but since it has the allen bolt at the bottom to tighten the two sides down I was able to tighten it enough to get it to stay where I needed it. Incidentally, I set it back about an inch and a half to keep my hand from rubbing on it so it limits my stock from collapsing fully but I only ever use that position when I transport or store it so I am not too worried.

I also attached my CAA pistol grip which installed fine but since it offers a nice radius above the thumb and pointer finger crevice I am able to see that the design of the lower receiver on the 15-22 is also very different from the real AR. On the real AR the radius is flush (if my memory serves me correct from my active duty days) and on the 15-22 there is a little bit of a gap. Not a problem just different.

The butt stock itself comes off ok so if you want to put on a different one it should not be a problem, though I can’t say for sure since I haven’t done it yet, but I think that I have seen people online with MAGPUL CTR stocks on their 15-22.

So far my gun has been great! the only regret I have is that it isn’t anywhere near as fulfilling as shooting off a real 5.56mm round. And I don’t recommend using ear pro or you will spend a lot of time wondering if it even shot. I have an occasional stove pipe or misfeed, whatever you want to call it, but they are few and far between. Maybe 1 every 100rds or so. I am debating on sending it in to get checked out but most likely I won’t. Honestly I am mostly just motivated to send it back to get more magazines as I can’t seem to get any through regular means.I am also not yet certain that my misfeeds are not just due to my loading the magazine improperly, as I have only been out to shoot it in the Eastern Idaho winter and my hands get really cold loading that mag with the button on it. I need to pay more attention to it.

Accuracy is right on, I have mostly been just shooting cans and roma tomatoes (they were on sale).When the weather warms up I will start focusing on shot groups at different distances.

Tanner, looking forward to your entended report also.

I finally got to go and shoot my new 15-22 last week and I only had some occasional feeding problems with the American Eagle 38 grain ammo. I chock it up to inexperience and freezing Idaho weather + no gloves with loading the magazines. I was just plinking at cans and stuff. It seemed to do well but since I was just with friends I didn’t bother really zeroing in the iron sights beyond the basic mechanical (halfway from both sides) zero. I hope to go shoot some tomorrow by myself and really dial it in. If I can get out there I will write a report for you guys.

Apparently the factory missed bending the ejector bar on some rifles. Mine was flat against the chamber wall and now that I bent it inwards it fired the full clip without a glitch. Previously with 24 rounds in the clip I would have 12 ejection problems, and if I was really lucky it may have only been 10 or 11 failures.

When I test fired the clip today, I wasn’t really aiming too much since I wasn’t concerned where they went so much as they actually left the chamber! The gun is quite accurate, I hit the target everytime, with many clumped together in the bullseye… Now to hook up my scope and zero this gun in the next time I go to the range.

If you have problems with the spent shells not ejecting, do the quick fix and don’t bother sending the gun back. Just a little defect… I am happy with the gun now.

Now watch, it’ll jam every time mow that I gave it such accolades.

The only thing I dont like is the hard trigger. Joe, do you think I need to take it to a local gun smith or send it back to have them adjust it. I have never had an AR 15 so No Parts.
Thanks…

Sent it back to S&W. Came back in 3 weeks.

Now I get many no-fires. Out of 100 rounds, I’ll get 4 “click” – no fire. There is a very weak mark in the rim. (The round will then fire in my Ruger 10/22)

Winchester & Remington ammo seems to have problems. I tried Federal ammo, and have had 0 problems.

Should I just shoot Federal ammo and shut up? Or send it back to S & W.

Anyone else have this trouble?

Each time it failed, the bullet did not get chambered and it was bent or the spent casing would get stuck and not ejected properly thus jamming the next bullet. I would have to put it on safety and eject the bent bullet or spent casing manually. This happened almost every other shot!

The ammo I shot:

1) Winchester Wildcat 22 High Velocity
2) CCI Mini-Mag 22LR 40 grain, Target/Plinking ammo
3) Winchester Super X 22LR plated round nose, 40 grain high velocity
4) Peter’s 22LR, High velocity, Solid point
5) Remington 22 Thunderbolt, Round nose

Again, I am thoroughly and utterly disappointed in this rifle. I understand a certain type of ammo may or may not work well with a specific gun, which is why I went to the range with 5 varities of ammo to see what worked best. To my displeasure, NONE worked so I have to assume the gun or magainze is simply poorly built.

Also I have it sighted in at 50 yards… For Squirrel hunting it shoots low… what is the best sight in yardage with a scope???

Thanks.

thanks for all of the feedback to my initial post.

Dan, I am a lefty as well. Just put a couple hundred rounds through it. Shells eject 90 degrees off the rifle. No problem.

Great gun. 1 jam out of about 200 rounds. Accurate too.

I would like to know S&W MP15-22 is still having jamming problems.

I would also like to know if when shooting this rifle which way does the spent shell fly, back, straight-out, forward? I am Left-Handed with this concern.

Has anyone heard of any other problems with this rifle?

Can you tell me where I can get this rifle in Missouri and what is the cost of this rifle?

Thank you, Dan

I finally picked mine up just before Christmas but I had to travel to Oregon for the Holidays to visit family so I haven’t been able to shoot it yet. I hope to get out in the next few days to see if I have to send it back or not.

I installed my CAA pistol grip on it. The install went exactly like a real AR from my memory (it seemed like there may have been one extra spring but it is probably just my bad memory). The only difference was that the grip is held on by an allen bolt instead of a regular flat head screw.

Also, the store I bought mine from, Ross Coin And Gun in Idaho Falls dropped its price to $399 while I had it on layaway so I didn’t have to pay full price after all.

I will update you when I get to shoot it.

Question is, is there a manufacture date that I should look for to reduce the issues with jamming, etc. noted above?

The piece is selling for $439 – I don’t really want to drive all over the place to find a $399 deal so I’ll cough up the little extra.

I checked the barrel for obstructions – lockup of the lower to the upper is very tight, but the pins can be removed by hand. Then I loaded up two mags of CCI Minimags, which were all digested without incident. Sights were close to zeroed at 25 yards, out of the box.

I proceeded to shoot a mag of old Blazer .22 LR sans jams or incident. It ate through a mag and a half of old RWS subsonic rounds with only a couple of failures to feed. The empty ejected, but the bolt didn’t retract enough to pick up the new round – not surprising on these reduced rounds.

I handed the rifle to my wife today, who isn’t an avid shooter. She had a blast, ripping out the center of 2 inch “Shoot n See” targets at 20 yards. This is important to me, since it will help her become familiar with AR-15 operation, and it’ll be easier for me to teach her how to show the Bushmaster carbine we use for home defense.

In all, this was a great purchase. I found it more fun to shoot then my tricked out 10-22, and probably nearly as accurate.

At this point I should know better than to buy something that hasn’t been out a year or so; same thing happened when I got a Trailside years ago, I got to be one of the people finding the problems they should have taken care of before it left the factory.

Less than three weeks later it was back, and worked flawlessly. It even fed more brands of ammo well than it had before. All the letter with it said was “Upgraded to current specs”, nothing about exactly what that meant.

Not quite three weeks ago put about 200 rounds through it. Came home, cleaned, put it back together and racked the bolt to check function and as the bolt dropped,’PING’.

What?

Opened the bolt and there’s a little spring loose in there! What the- The extractor had ejected itself from the bolt and left the spring behind.

So, another phone call, another label and off to the factory. Again.

In the middle of the blizzard yesterday I heard a knock at the door and found a FedEx guy with a frozen look and a box. So figuring five days transit for this time of year, they got to my rifle and did the work in a week; not bad.

But AAAARGH! In the cover letter the only thing it says is ‘Repaired: Updated to latest spec’, same as before. So aside from the extractor being in, no idea what that means. I think I’m going to ask; I’ll pass on what I find out.

And yeah, they included two new magazines with it.

Note: when it came back from the first return(I HATE having to write that) not only would it feed better, but it would feed Eley Sport, a subsonic ammo. It’s only the second semi-auto I’ve ever tried that would properly and reliably cycle with it. Which is nice, as it’s very accurate in this thing.